Duncan Designed Pickups

Duncan Designed Pickups

Posted on
July 9, 2015 by Jay Hale

The Duncan Designed line of pickups was started in 1995 at the request of several of our larger original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) customers who wanted to offer a pickup tied in to the Duncan identity on their mid-level instruments. While USA-made Seymour Duncan and Basslines pickups are intended to fit on instruments with list prices over US$800, the Korean-built Duncan Designed pickups are intended for OEM use on guitars and basses with retail prices between US$300 and $800. The Duncan Designed club members include Squier, Jackson, ESP LTD, Schecter Diamond Series, Daisy Rock, Hamer, Aria Pro II and Samick’s Greg Bennett series.

There are currently several humbuckers available in the Duncan Designed range, each of which is neck or bridge position-calibrated and was modeled after a USA-built model.

FG-101

Captures the big, brash sound of the great rockabilly hollow-body guitars with a touch of “snarl” thrown in.

GEQ-1

Originally developed for a Jackson model over a decade ago, the GEQ-1 Firestorm™ is a 20dB gain boost circuit for solidbody electric guitars. It takes a standard-looking axe and, with the flick of an innocent looking mini-toggle switch, turns it into a weapon of mass destruction capable of driving your amp harder for solos or thick rhythms, and giving you extra sustain and power.

BEQ-2 & 3

For bass, thre are two circuits, the BEQ-2 two-band and the BEQ-3 three-band. In addition, there are numerous offerings for bass in standard Jazz Bass®, P-Bass®, soapbar and Music Man® bass formats.

HB-101

The HB-101 was patterned after the Seymour Duncan SH-1 ’59 Model™ humbucker set. It uses an Alnico 5 magnet and winding spec based on the revered 1955 – 1960 Gibson P.A.F humbucker. It’s an all-rounder capable of dishing out vintage-style tone or keeping up with high gain without sacrificing clarity.

HB-102

The HB-102 was modeled after Seymour’s favorite humbucker combination, the USA-made SH-4 JB™ bridge and SH-2n Jazz Model™ neck set. Like the HB-101s, these pickups also use Alnico 5 magnets, but have a hotter winding spec, based on the world’s most popular “hot-rodded” humbucker. The bridge pickup is Trembucker-spaced.

HB-103

The HB-103 was patterned after the SH-6 Duncan Distortion™ set. It uses ceramic magnets and powerful coil windings to deliver a high output tone with lots of crunch and harmonics. The bridge pickup is Trembucker-spaced.

HB-103

The HB-103 was patterned after the SH-6 Duncan Distortion™ set. It uses ceramic magnets and powerful coil windings to deliver a high output tone with lots of crunch and harmonics. The bridge pickup is Trembucker-spaced.

HB-104

The HB-104 is a high-output blade humbucker that’s based on a design we created for England’s Patrick Eggle Guitars. The guitar was short-lived, but the pickup lives on in some recent guitar designs from Schecter and Jackson.

HB-105

The Duncan Designed version of the super-popular Seymour Duncan Blackouts active humbucker.

HB-108

The HB-108 is called the Detonator™ and is based on the high-output, Seymour Duncan SH-8 Invader.

HB-112

Similar to the Seymour Duncan Screamin’ Demon, but with more bite and more screams!

HB-7

The HB-7 is a seven-string version of the HB-102 set.

HR-101

The HR-101 is based on the popular Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails™, but with increased output.

P90-1

PB-101

PB-105

This loud rock ‘n roll pickup is modelled after the popular Basslines SPB-3 Quarter-Pound.

SB-101

Soapbar-style bass pickup for a modern sound.

SB-102

A modern sound with enhanced dynamic range.

SC-101

The SC-101 single coils represent a tonal cross between Seymour Duncan’s SSL-2 Vintage Flat and SSL-6 Custom Flat models. Unlike many inexpensive single coils that have a large ceramic magnet glued underneath non-magnetic steel slugs, the SC-101s use real Alnico V rod pole pieces with a flat magnet stagger for exceptional string balance. The three single coil models are each specially calibrated to either bridge, middle or neck positions, with the middle pickup reverse wound, reverse polarity. The tone is chimey and bright with exceptional “quack” in the notch positions.

SC-7n

Hotter than vintage, this 7-string single coil is great for rock.

TE-101b

This vintage single coil goes from chickin’ pickin’ to heavy blues.

TE-103

Using our Stack technology, you get great vintage tones but no 60-cycle hum.

Jazz Bass and P-Bass are registered trademarks of FMIC. Patrick Eggle is a trademark of Patrick Eggle Guitars, UK. Music Man is a registered trademark of Ernie Ball. Seymour Duncan is not affiliated with these companies.

All of this info’s on the Duncan Design individual models is great to have access to, but there’s NOTHING said about whether the “Duncan Design” lead wires follow the same color coding as standard Seymour Duncans. I would think so, but it seems I read something in the Duncan Forum that the two most important wires (Black & Green) functions are reversed with Green being Hot/+ and Black being Ground. As I currently have a install on a customers “Les Paul” clone build and he’s using a set of HB102’s it’d be nice to know for sure!